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The Wiz Live!
' The Wiz Live!' is a live-television adaptation of the Broadway show by NBC. It aired on December 3rd, 2015. The show was co-produced with Cirque du Soleil. Since the original show began touring in 1975, this new version is the 40th anniversary edition of the original. Plot The story begins in Kansas, on Aunt Em's farm. Two of the farm help (Ne-Yo, Elijah Kelley) are fixing an old fence whilst the other farm help (David Alan Grier) gets chased by Toto. Dorothy (Shanice Williams), who's trying to run away back to her birthplace in Omaha, Nebraska, chases after Toto. The farm help soon discover about her attempt to runaway again, but before anything else could be said, Aunt Em (Stephanie Mills) follows after Dororthy. Dorothy tells Aunt Em that she wants to return back to her old home, but Aunt Em reminds Dorothy that she can't, because her old apartment was vacated after the death of her parents. Aunt Em tells Dorothy it's better staying with her then being back in Omaha (The Feeling We Once Had). Aunt Em warns Dorothy that a storm is approaching close, but it's too late for Dorothy. She gets caught in the storm (The Tornado). She finally lands in Munchkinland, where the Munchkins surround Dorothy, saying how is responsible for the murder of Evamene the Wicked Witch of the East. They celebrate and rejoice of the death of the witch, which gets the attention of Addapearle the Good Witch of the North ( Amber Riley), who was just passing through until she was almost hit by Dorothy's house. She thanks Dorothy, but Dorothy is still confused, and still wanting to go home to Omaha. Addapearle and the Munchkins tell her to go see The Wiz (He's The Wizard). Addapearle gives Dorothy Evamene's Silver Shoes and a kiss on the forehead for protection. Addapearle soon disappears, and the Munchkins tell Dorothy to follow the Yellow Brick Road to get to the Wiz's home in the Emerald City. They also warn her to look out for Winged Warriors, Kalidahs, Poppies, and Evamene's vengeful sister, Evillene the Wicked Witch of the West. As Dorothy leaves Munchkinland, she thinks about all the strange things she could encounter in Oz (Soon As I Get Home). Dorothy continues her journey until she comes across the Scarecrow (Elijah Kelley), who asks Dorothy if she has any money in order to buy him some brains. The crows surrounding the Scarecrow begin to intrude in the conversation, and begin to bully him (You Can't Win). Dorothy scares them off and lets him off his pole. She invites him to see the Wiz in order to get a brain (Ease On Down The Road). Dorothy and the Scarecrow across a junkyard where the find the rusted up Tinman (Ne-Yo). He asks for oil so he can move (Slide Some Oil To Me). Once he is oiled up and lubricated he tells them he ended up rusted after getting caught in a rainstorm. Dorothy gets curious and asks why he is made of tin. He recalls that he was once a normal man who was in love with a woman named Bertha. But Evamene also had a crush on him. Before he could tell the Wicked Witch off, she saw him and Bertha kissing in the forest. She got so furious that she cast a spell on him. Once he woke up, he soon found out he is now made of metal, and his once living heart is now gone. Dorothy, feeling sorry, invites him along to see the Wiz, but he refuses at first, thinking Evamene is still watching him. Dorothy soon tells him that the Witch is dead, and she is responsible for it. He is grateful and he joins them. They soon wander into the forest where they run into the Cowardly Lion (David Alan Grier). He appears big and ferocious until Dorothy punches him (Mean Ole Lion). He then feels embarrased and sad. Dorothy and her friends begin to feel sorry for the poor creature, so they invite him along to get some courage. The travelers all soon get tired and get off track of the road. The Scarecrow decides they all should each go in different directions to find the road. But before Dorothy could find the road, she hears a familiar voice. It was the voice and image of her deceased mother wanting the Silver Shoes. Dorothy believes this is her actual mother and obeys. Before she gives her mother the Shoes, the Tinman runs towards Dorothy, telling Dorothy it's not her mother, but a Kalidah after the Shoes. Soon an entire group of Kalidahs attack Dorothy, Scarecrow, and Tinman, who fight off the creatures while the Lion hides. Once they fight all the Kalidahs, off Dorothy thanks her friends, but before Dorothy thanks the Lion, the Tinman gets very upset, taunting the Lion for his cowardice. Dorothy begins to cheer the Lion up (Be a Lion). All happy again, the four walk on the road towards the poppy fields, where the Poppy Girls try and seduce them all. The Scarecrow and Tinman nearly fall into the trap seeing the beautiful ladies.Knowing how truely dangerous they are, The Lion tells everyone to hide and stay away while he handles the Poppy Girls. After he dances with the ladies, he ties them all up. The Lion and his friends proceed to walk to the Emerald City. Dorothy and her friends make it to the Emerald City, where they meet the Bouncer (Common). He refuses to let them in until Dorothy shows the Silver Shoes, and explains that she received them from Addaperle after killing Evemene. After Dorothy and her friends ask the citizens where the Wiz is, the citizens soon see Dorothy's Shoes, and point her towards the Wiz. Dorothy and her friends enter the room of the Wiz (Queen Latifah), where he greets them (S''o You Wanted To Meet The Wizard''). He asks them what they want from him. The Wiz first hears the requests from Lion, Scarecrow, and Dorothy. When Dorothy tells the Wiz about her plans to leave her Aunt Em's farm for Omaha, the Wiz tells her that she can't go home until she decides which of those two places is her true home. The Tinman finally asks for a heart, and after the Wiz asks him why, the Tinman tells him (What Would I Do If I Could Feel). The Wiz agrees to grant their wishes, on one condition. They must kill Evillene the Wicked Witch of the West, who is planning to conquer all of Oz. Before they could refuse the offer, the Wizard vanishes. The Lion, Tinman and Scarecorw refuse to go, but Dorothy encourages them (We Got It). In the Winkie Factory, the head Winkie informs one of the factory workers that Evillene now owns the factory. Evillene (Mary J. Blige) enters and asks for the news after expressing her hatred for all the water leaking everywhere (No Bad News). After hearing about Dorothy coming to kill her, she sends her Winged Warriors out to capture the girl and her friends. Once captured, Dorothy and the Lion are put to work. Meanwhile, Evillene tries to get the shoes from Dorothy. Dorothy refuses which angers the witch. She calls in her dinner, prompting the Winkies bring out the Scarecrow and Tinman, and tie up the lion. The Witch threatens to make a fire with the Scarecrow, turn the Tinman into a cooking pot, and cut and boil the Lion into Forest Lion Stew. This gets Dorothy so angry that she throws a bucket of water on the Witch. Evillene screams in fear as she soon melts away into smoke. The Winkies, along with Dorothy and her friends, rejoice in the death of the Witch (A Brand New Day). Dorothy and her friends return to the Emerald City where they meet the Bouncer again. He won't let them in, saying the Wiz banned them from entering ever again. So the Scarecrow comes up with a plan, and tricks the Bouncer, allowing him and the others to sneak inside. They enter the Wiz's room. While Dorothy speaks with the Wiz through his giant robot head, the Lion discovers the true person behind the Wiz. The Wiz turns out to be a fake, and not even a man, but a woman. She tells them her story, that she was once a magician's assistant from Omaha. By night they'd perform magic, but during the day they would give rides in a hot air balloon. She loved the rides and her job, but hated her boss. So in order to teach him a lesson, she left in the balloon without him one day, planning to land back down after he learned not to mistreat her. However, she got caught in a storm, and before she knew it, she was in Oz. Where the Emerald City citizens saw her, they thought she was a wizard coming to save them. Back in the present, the Wiz tells Dorothy's friends they had what they wanted all along. Then the Scarecrow tells the Wiz to take Dorothy home herself. The Wiz refuses at first, but after Dorothy persuades her to abandon her life of deception and solitude, she agrees. Before the Wiz leaves for Omaha, she says goodbye to the citizens (Y'all Got It). Dorothy soon realizes that she doesn't want to go to Omaha, but back to Kansas with Aunt Em, and allows the Wiz to leave without her. Addapearle appears once more and realizes Dorothy has learned her lesson. Dorothy, now feeling exhausted, wishes to go home, so Addapearle calls in her sister Glinda, the Good Witch of the South (Uzo Aduba). Glinda greets Dorothy, telling her that she's been watching her the whole time she was in Oz. Glinda reveals to Dorothy that she always had the power to go home, and advises the girl to click her heels three times and think of home (Believe in Yourself). After the two Witches and the citizens leave, Dorothy says goodbye to her new friends, then thinks of her home in Kansas (Home). Dorothy clicks her heels, and before she knows it, Toto runs into her arms, and Aunt Em kisses her to welcome her back home. History NBC embarks on its latest musical holiday tradition with a live television production of the groundbreaking Broadway show that brought the vivid world of Oz to a new generation in a fresh, funky sing-along journey down the yellow brick road. Winner of seven Tony Awards, including Best Musical, the original show was a massive hit on Broadway and even spawned a feature film starring Diana Ross and Michael Jackson. Now, a Tony-winning creative team, the hugely imaginative Cirque du Soleil Theatrical, and a diverse cast of showstopping performers will come together to create an eye-popping new take unlike anything seen before. Cast *Stephanie Mills as Auntie Em *Mary J. Blige as Evillene *Queen Latifah as the Wiz *Shanice Williams as Dorothy *David Alan Grier as Cowardly Lion *Uzo Aduba as Glinda *Amber Riley as Addapearle *Elijah Kelley as Scarecrow *Ne-Yo as Tinman *Common as the Gatekeeper Song List *Prologue *The Feeling We Once Had *The Tornado *He's The Wizard *Soon As I Get Home *You Can't Win *Ease On Down The Road *Slide Some Oil To Me *Mean Ole' Lion *Be A Lion *So You Wanted to Meet The Wizard *What Would I Do if I could Feel *We Got It *No Bad News *A Brand New Day *Y'all Got It *Believe in Yourself *Home Production Credits *Studio Universal Television, Cirque du Soleil Theatrical *Executive Producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron (Oscar-winning "Chicago" and "Hairspray," "The Sound of Music LIVE!," "Peter Pan LIVE") *Director Kenny Leon (Tony Award-winning "A Raisin in the Sun," "Fences") *Choreographer Fatima Robinson ("The Voice," "Dreamgirls" film, "VH1 Hip Hop Honors") *New Written Material Harvey Fierstein ("Kinky Boots," "Newsies," "Torch Song Trilogy," "La Cage aux Folles") Trivia *This is NBC's 2nd Oz project after the cancelled and then reordered Emerald City (TV series). It is likely that this was either picked up as a replacement or to insight a renewed interest in Oz in which the series was pitched again. *Before the confirmation, it was revealed that NBC also had the choice doing The Music Man or A Few Good Men as its annual live winter musical for 2015 (Previous: Peter Pan Live! in 2014 and The Sound of Music Live! in 2013). *Stephanie Mills played as Dorothy in the original broadway production. *David Alan Grier and Queen Latifah played Uncle Henry and Aunt Em respectfully in the The Muppets' Wizard of Oz *This will be the first time the Wizard of Oz is protrayed by a female actress in a full oz production. *David Alan Grier once played the Wiz in La Jolla's version of the production. *Queen Latifah and Elijah Kelley played alongside each other in the 2007 film adaption of Hairspray as Seaweed and Motormouth Maybelle. *Ne-Yo and Elijah Kelley worked in the film Red Tails together *Queen Latifah and Common played alongside each other in the film Just Wright. *SNL spoofed The Wiz Live! with a sketch with the characters from the Wiz Live! and the scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz (1939). *Kenny Leon previously directed Queen Latifah in Lifetime's all-African-American version of Steel Magnolias. Characters WizCast.jpg 14473512989775.jpg Screenshot_2015-10-25-20-38-35-1.png image:2028 image:2027 image:2031 image:2029 Screenshot_2015-10-25-20-38-41-1.png image:3223 image:2046 image:3507 Screenshot_2015-11-17-18-31-54-1.png Screenshot_2015-11-17-18-32-00-1.png Screenshot_2015-11-17-18-32-10-1.png Screenshot_2015-11-17-18-32-14-1.png Screenshot_2015-11-17-18-32-31-1.png Screenshot_2015-11-17-18-32-37-1.png Screenshot_2015-11-17-18-32-48-1.png Screenshot_2015-11-17-18-32-53-1.png Screenshot_2015-11-17-18-32-58-1.png Screenshot_2015-11-17-18-33-11-1.png Screenshot_2015-11-17-18-33-20-1.png Screenshot_2015-11-17-18-40-12-1.png Screenshot_2015-11-17-18-33-03-1.png Screenshot_2015-11-17-18-33-16-1.png image:3735 image:3759 image:3758 image:3757 NUP_171101_2424.jpg Gallery 04-wiz-audience.w529.h529.jpg 960.jpg 151123-news-thewiz.jpg 151202135956-the-wiz-live-restricted-large-169.jpg 151204103131-the-wiz-live-nbc-queen-neyo-exlarge-169.jpg 635847766436628889-NUP-171901-0653.JPG image.JPG lead_960.jpg mary-j-blige-performance-the-wiz-live-evillene.jpg NUP_171880_1595.jpg nup_171901_0948.jpg nup_171901_1764.jpg screen-shot-2015-12-03-at-1-53-00-pm.png the_wiz_live_still.jpg the-wiz.jpg the-wiz-120315-2.jpg The-WIz-Live.jpg the-wiz-live-4.jpg thewizlive11.jpeg the-wiz-live-8.jpg The-Wiz-Live-NBC.jpg the-wiz-live-shanice-williams-best-worst-moments-photos.jpg wiztornado.jpg wizglinda.jpg wiz11.jpg wizsinging.jpg nup_171910_0263_wide-7c80d49a77c425c1a90ab607fe82cc5b2ee3523a-s900-c85.jpg SNL_Wiz_Parody.png|Saturday Night Live spoof Videos Externand l links NBC Show Listing References Category:Musicals Category:Theatre Category:Live-action Category:Live Category:Oz Plays